File: Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The Presidency has dismissed claims that Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, the senior Islamic State leader eliminated in a joint Nigeria-United States military operation, had been killed in a previous operation, insisting that earlier reports linking his name to a 2024 strike were a case of mistaken identity.
The clarification came from Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, amid growing public scepticism over the authenticity of the operation, which was announced by US President Donald Trump on Friday night.
Onanuga, on Saturday, in a post shared on X, acknowledged that Al-Manuki’s name had appeared on lists of suspected ISWAP commanders reportedly killed in 2024 during operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State, but said security officials had since established that the earlier listing was a misattribution.
“Security officials now clarify that the earlier listing was a case of mistaken identity or misattribution in the fog of sustained counterinsurgency operations.
